We got up early and were on our way around 6:30 for the first excursion that day. Poifu poled us a bit further up Chief's Island, and took us for for a bush walk. It didn't take him long to spot a herd of elephants, first time we saw those in broad daylight. Not long thereafter, it finally happened: We saw a giraffe. This is my favourite African animal, with its long neck, nice spotted skin, and fluffy horns. The giraffe had also spotted us, and stared as intensively back at us as we stared at her. The giraffe was not alone, three females and a male, and together with them a herd of zebras (my other favourite African animal). We followed them for a while; They always kept a distance to us, and stood still and observed us when we stopped, and walked forward when we walked towards them.

On our way back we saw the elephants again, and of course lot of impalas and birds.

We were back at the camp at 10, it had become very hot already, but in the shade under the trees it was cooler. There we rested until around 3, when we decided to head back to bush camp rather than to stay out there another night. One of the reasons was that we had decided to stay another night at Bush camp so that we could continue flying early in the morning on the 16th instead of late in the afternoon the 15th, and therefore we had to pack and unpack the tent once more anyway. Besides Poifu was not prepared for staying out 2 nights, and finally we would like to get back to some more company (Poifu wasn't the most talkative person), and better food at the camp.

On the way back to the camp, we spotted a lot of game. Impalas, but also an elephant taking a mud bath.

We left the luggage back at Bush Camp, and Poifu took us out for a mokoro trip to try and spot some hippos. We didn't succeed.

Back at the camp we found that the camping site, which before had been empty except for us, had been invaded by the Netherlands. We could barely find a spot, the only place we could put the tent was in the pathway, and in oder to be the least in the way, we put the tent in the center of the camping site, directly on the crossing between both pathways. A Dutch woman warned Klaus that this wasn't a good spot since the tent might be flattened by the 'olifants' (apparently Dutch for elephant). However, there really were no where else to put the tent, where we would not be in the way.

We had dinner at the restaurant, and talked with a Dutch couple, who did not belong to the big invading camping group. They were headed in the opposite direction of us, and gave ud some hints about where to stay in Kasane. They also told us that the trip between Kasane and Savuti had taken them around 11 hours, partly because of bad roads, partly because they got stuck in the sand (I guess this would also go under the category bad roads). The same journey would take us less than an hour flying.

We sat up late talking to Niki and William, the English couple we had met out in the wildernes camp, and Williams parents.

/ Linda